SC to hear plea on lawyers’ nativity practice criteria for judicial officer applications

Hyderabad/ New Delhi: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea challenging the Telangana High Court decision upholding an eligibility criteria that allows only lawyers enrolled in the local bar association to appear for examination for the post of civil judge in the state. A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra issued notice on a plea of advocate V Rakesh Reddy, who is enrolled with the Delhi Bar Council, and allowed him to apply for the post of civil judge in Telangana.

"The petitioner is allowed to upload his admission form online, in terms of advertisement dated April 10, 2024. As an interim measure, the same should not be rejected on the grounds mentioned in 5.2(A) (III)(a) of the Telangana State Judicial (Service and Cadre) Rules, 2023 and the qualification in Clause 6(A)(III) of the Recruitment Notice," the bench noted in its order of May 17.

As per the provisions of the Telangana State Judicial Services Rules of 2023, a candidate who wants to apply for the examination is mandatorily required to be a practitioner from the local bar association and submit a certificate of practice as a proof. The bench noted the submission of advocates Apoorv Kurup and Nidhi Mittal, appearing for Reddy that he is enrolled as a lawyer with the Delhi Bar Council and was interested in applying for the post of civil judge in response to the advertisement dated April 10. Kurup, assisted by advocate Rahul Jangra, submitted that since the candidate is also required to produce a certificate of practice from the local bar association, Reddy's candidature may be rejected at the threshold.

The bench noted that the court has already agreed to hear a similar challenge made in a plea of a candidate for the post of district judge and an interim relief has been granted to him to apply for the job. It tagged Reddy's plea along with the pending matter. Reddy, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, had challenged the high court's May 3 order which upheld certain rules of the Telangana State Judicial Services Rules, 2023 as well as the notification dated April 10, 2024.

Reddy said that the notifications of the previous year’s did not have such a requirement and the impugned notification dated April 10, 2024 has brought about such a requirement and the last date for submission of the online applications is May 17, 2024. He said it breaches the legitimate expectations of the aspirants as they have to now either enroll themselves with the Bar Association of Telangana within 37 days or completely forgo the examination," he said.